Quick video from this week. I can’t get the youtube editor to work they way it did the first night I used it so I can’t get the other Christmas video edited. I will go ahead and post it. It is long and may make you a bit motion sick…. 
At least he isn’t putting them in the trash anymore.
Christmas videos from Christmas morning at our house. Maybe one day I will be able to edit it properly!
I finally figured out a way to edit my videos so I am slowly working on them. The only way I can edit them is to do the edits in YouTube. I stumbled on it the other day and was so excited. It isn’t anything spectacular, but I am just looking to crop them down some and make them a little more interesting for everyone. I haven’t found a free program on my computer that can read the ten million video formats (I am pretty sure there are 10 million and none are compatible with each other) and doesn’t slow my computer down to a snail’s pace making the videos all choppy and impossible to edit. It takes a long time to upload them and then do the work and time isn’t something I have much of these days. If Graham could start entertaining himself some during the day or taking a long nap that would probably help, but I don’t see either happening anytime soon.
Here is a collection of videos my brother took on Christmas Day. It is long, but make sure to stick around for the mini break down in the middle involving the Hess truck. Graham was a bit whiny and tired by the time we got over there Christmas morning and there was a lot of action. Not a good combination. Hopefully more Christmas videos to come soon.
I know everyone is waiting for Christmas pictures so wanted to post a few tonight. I have videos too, but might be another week until I can get those on here. I still have old videos and pictures to post if I ever get around to doing it. I am trying to update and clean up all my pictures. There are a lot. Way too many and not organized or printed. I need to get better at tagging, printing and deleting the bad ones. Videos too.
Santa brought Graham an awesome cardboard house for Christmas! He loves it, even more than his expensive fancy toys. I am not sure what is so great about it, but he sure seems to like it so it looks like I will have a big box in my living room for awhile. Santa spent a lot of time and way too much money making this house, but it turned out really nice. He of course has already started destroying it.
Felt wall in the house
The other Santa gifts, not nearly as exciting. We had to drag him out of the house to open them.
Christmas with my parents.
Trying to ride the Hess truck.
Christmas in Charlotte with all his cousins. He was in heaven playing with them!
A black and white expression since I haven’t done these in a long time. I wasn’t able to edit it as much as I wanted because I upgraded to Elements 10. There are a few things I can’t figure out yet and none of my actions are in 10 yet.
A couple weeks ago we went to Pullen Park with our good friends. Since both our boys go to bed pretty early and we all hate being cold we decided to get there at 4 when it opened. They turn the park into a winter wonderland for the Holidays and since we were there while it was still light we didn’t get the full feel, but it was still fun. The boys rode on the carousel and neither seemed particularly thrilled with it, neither cried so that was good. I think the biggest hit was the swings, at least for the boys. For the adults I think it was the carousel! We also rode the train around the park, but it wasn’t dark yet so the lights weren’t as pretty as they could have been. It was still fun especially for me and Jason who used to visit Pullen Park as children. They renovated the park so it doesn’t even look like the same place to me, but there are some things that are the same and bring back memories. Maybe if I have some free time (ha) I can find some pictures of me at Pullen Park when I was little. By 6 we were ready to leave and go get some food, the selection at the park was weak at best. We had to wait a bit for the shuttle bus and while we were waiting I heard a lot of people complaining about there being so much waiting. I thought it was strange because we didn’t have to wait for anything all day. When we arrived at the parking lot there were about 5 cars and we were on the first bus. When we got back to the lot at 6 there were about 500 cars and a line that went on forever of people waiting to get to the park! Then those poor people were going to have to wait for all the rides (there are only 2) when they got there! Yikes. If we had arrived at 6 we would have promptly pulled back out of the parking lot and went home. Casey and I were parked in front of the buses so we got out quickly, but Allison and Jason witnessed the chaos that occurred when some very rude people tried to break out of line and rush the bus we just left! So much for the Christmas spirit. Here are a few pictures from that day including Graham’s first encounter with Santa. I have no intention of taking him to see Sanata at the mall until he is much older and actually asks to see him, but the Pullen Park Santa was free to visit and the line was short. He was pretty excited about it in line and seemed happy right up until the point we walked up to Santa and stood next to him. I knew there was no way he would sit with Santa, but I thought maybe he would at least check him out and give him a smile while I held him. Instead he held on to me for dear life and started to cry. The picture is one of my favorites though so it was worth it.
Click HERE to see all the photos from Pullen Park.
Here are two videos from the park this week. Graham is really gaining confidence on the playground!
My little baby is now 18 months. Well, over 18 months now since it has taken me so long to post. It is so hard to get things done in December! I do pretty much all the shopping so that keeps me busy. Plus we have lots of activities going on with playgroups and friends this time of year. I wish I had more pictures to post because I have so many to catch up on and videos, but I can’t seem to get them done! We have been taking videos with our phones since they are always on us and you have to be pretty quick these days to catch the cute stuff. The problem is I don’t have a good way to edit the videos so if I post them as is you will probably be really bored and annoyed by them. So I will work on figuring out a better way to edit and post them.
In Graham news he has become a pro at opening door knobs. Many people told me how hard it would be when he learned to walk, yeah, wasn’t really that bad. This is bad. Now I can’t contain him! Most of our rooms are pretty child proof so no matter where I am I can shut the door and do what I need to do while he plays, but can still keep an eye on him. I have various things stashed in each room to entertain him. Well, now he just opens the door and goes somewhere else! Usually down to the bonus room screaming “da da” and busting into Casey’s “office” while he working, usually on the phone. As of now he can’t open the bigger, heavier doors that lead out of the house and he can’t unlock those so at least he can’t escape on me. He can unlock the regular doors so I will have to find some of those little door knob child proof things. I have some, but no idea where I put them. I figure they will work for a bit until he figures them out too.
We had his 18 month appointment last Friday and he weighed in at 26 pounds and is 33.5 inches tall. So his height has gone up a good bit, up to about 75th percentile. Weight is just above average. Not bad for a kid that was only 13 pounds last year at 6 months old and not even on the charts. The doctor said everything looked great and he was a little ahead with fine motor skills. He loves to talk and is very verbal. Lately he is really into colors. Yellow, blue and purple being the ones he can say the best so everything is one of those colors, mostly yellow.
So funny story about me…. a week or two ago I couldn’t find my brown shoes. I looked everywhere multiple times for them and finally gave up. Then the next day I had to run up into the attic to grab something (see, I can’t even remember what I was going up there for!) and there were my shoes. Nicely placed in the attic with a stack of clothes. Really? I managed to put my shoes in the attic and had no idea! Hopefully that made you smile and if you are a mom I am sure you can relate. I have had to dig through the trash (outside, not just the one in the house) at least 4 times in the last few months in search of items I accidentally threw away. Although, one was technically Casey’s fault.
I took this video one day after a busy morning out. I was cleaning up the dishes from lunch and I looked over to see Graham falling asleep in his chair. This is probably something most children do, but not Graham. He has never fallen asleep like this! He has also started falling asleep in the car on the way home from our morning activities and then he doesn’t want to nap. I never used to have to worry about that because he would never in a million years sleep in the car! Guess he is getting used to sleeping other places.
Having fun at Lowe’s.
Playing around at the dinner table. He loves to pull things off the table.
Enjoying some healthy dinner. He was eating all my fries! He was desperate to try my Sprite so I let him have a little sip. He promptly made a face and spit it out.
This is how I found my child dressed when Casey was in charge. The sad part is that he had taken him for a walk around the block dressed like this and stopped to talk to a few neighbors. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the greens do not match. I really need to keep my good camera near me because the one on my phone is horrible.
Climbing on the couch. You can see he already lost one shoe on the table during one of his climbs. The other day I was cleaning up toys in the living room and all the sudden the light came on in the room. I turned around to find Graham standing on his highchair playing with the switches!
Okay, last one for tonight. It takes so long to upload these to you tube. Here he is helping to clean up. Those are his play leaves so we had to take them out of the trash after he cleaned them up for us.
I am trying very hard to catch up on pictures and videos this week, but Graham is going to bed a bit later these days which doesn’t give me as much time at night. The last few weeks Graham has really turned into a big boy and isn’t my baby anymore. He likes to drink from a cup like a big boy and he does a really good job. He loves to sit in the big chairs and was in the big swing at the park over the weekend. He is looking so much like a big boy too and is really into repeating things we say or do. Or at least making his best effort. He loves to play in the car and sit in our laps as we drive the car into the driveway or just sit in the car and honk the horn, play with the buttons and turn the wheel. He currently likes the color yellow since it is the one he can say, kinda. There has been so much going on lately and I wish I could remember everything, but right now my brain is fried. I wanted to at least post a few pictures. I will post more this week and hopefully some videos too.
Eating an apple like a big boy while lounging and watching TV.
Thanksgiving on Saturday, wish I had a picture of everyone at the table. Think dad has one though. To see all the Thanksgiving photos click HERE.
Setting the table
Playing with Christine
Boys watching football ALL day!
Me and Graham. He is downing some cranberries…. or should I say sugar and HFCS with a touch of cranberries.
Graham eating AGAIN…. Lola keeping a close eye on the cracker.
Playing in the pond. He tried many many times to walk into the pond. He is obsessed with water.
Playground with Uncle Zach. To see all of them click HERE.
Today we went out to Yates Mill Park in an attempt to get some pictures of Graham. I wasn’t really impressed with the area, well at least not for Graham. It was so busy and there were professional photographers all over the place. There is pretty much one main area to take photos so you had to wait around for your turn. This doesn’t really work well for a 17 month old. It is great for the families with older kids that you can pose and give instructions, but toddlers don’t really do what you want and if you try to force them you get a tantrum…. We tried a couple quick photos, but Graham was in a pretty grumpy mood. We tried to go over to the rocks and water fall area, but as soon as Graham sees any type of water he wants to get in it. Walk in it, stand in it, play with it, sit in it, you get the picture. You can’t get him to do anything else and he screams when you take him away. He is obsessed with water! So needless to say the photo shoot didn’t go well and I have pretty much no pictures. Plus I lost my sunglasses. We went to another park in the afternoon and I got a couple photos. I am debating about using them for my Christmas cards. If I do I will have to keep them under wraps for awhile, but if I change my mind I will post some soon.
Saturday Casey’s parents, aunt and uncle and cousin and his wife came over for a short visit. It was nice to see them and they brought us some very yummy cookies which Graham loves! He gets the chocolate all over his face. It was a short visit, but Graham had a good time. I think the highlight for him was driving Pa Pa’s truck (and the cookies).
Checking the mirror:
Since I don’t have any new pictures for you I am going to post a few that dad took last weekend while they were babysitting all weekend.
A few Halloween pictures for you guys. The weather here on Halloween was terrible so we didn’t get to take him out. It was raining and very cold. I am sure there wouldn’t have been much to see anyway with the weather. Maybe it will be nicer next year. I did have stroller strides class that morning before the rain started and he dressed up for class so he got a little use out of his costume.
I took these photos last night for fun since we didn’t get any on Halloween.
I took this video on my camera a couple weeks ago. He grabbed his oatmeal bowl off the table and had a great time playing with it all over the floor. I was playing Pandora on my phone. This is a song we listen and dance to at the library each week. He never participates during story time and prefers to watch everyone else. He clearly knows what to do though because he started doing the movements to the song without me prompting him or showing him what to do. He is doing it all on his own. He only does the clap and shake verses, but he is trying to jump now. He loves to “jump”, but only one foot comes off the ground. I will have to get a video because it is very cute.
Casey and I spent the weekend in Lake Lure without Graham. It was our first weekend away from him and I don’t think he cared one bit. I was sad to leave him on Friday, but I have to say by Saturday I was feeling fine and enjoying my quiet day. I was a bit sad to come home today and wanted another day to relax and enjoy the mountains. We were excited to see Graham though and when we went to get him he acted like we were strangers! He was clinging to my mom and clearly wasn’t very excited to see us.
We rented a cabin way up a mountain with a wonderful view. The only bad part being you don’t want to drive on that road in the dark and it takes awhile to get places. But, why go anywhere when the cabin has everything? We did go hike at Chimney Rock on Saturday and we went on a tour of Lake Lure. I found the tour extra exciting because they pointed out a few Dirty Dancing sites and I LOVE that movie. It was very cold though thanks to a cold front that came through the day before we arrived. Figures. At any rate this is the same time of year they taped Dirty Dancing and we saw where the water scenes were filmed. While on the boat we were wearing jeans, long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt and heavy winter coat…. and we were still cold. So I really don’t know how they filmed in that weather in the WATER! In summer clothes! Since the leaves were turning at the time they came out every morning and sprayed all the trees with green food coloring to make it look like summer. We also saw some big houses where the rich “summer”. I would love to know where all these people get all their money. Maybe they could share a little with me or get me a nice cabin.
I still have some other pictures of Graham and some videos so hopefully I can get to them this week, but for now here are some Lake Lure pictures.
View from the porch and kitchen window:
Hot tub and we did go out there last night even though it was really really cold (probably 40 something). We didn’t read the instruction until about 6:30 and then realized it could take 6-8 hours to eat in cold weather. So we made a fire inside, roasted marshmallows, filled the house with smoke since Casey made an outdoor sized fire inside, watched a movie and then sat in the hot tub around 11:00. There were so many stars and it was a perfectly clear night. I really didn’t think it was that bad outside, but Casey ran inside like a little girl while I tried to fix the cover and lock it down. The strange thing is I freeze in my own house after I take a shower in the winter and it way warmer in here than it was outside!
Fire pit area. I was really hoping to use this area, but after being in the cold and wind all day Saturday an indoor fire sounded much more relaxing…. until the house filled with smoke.
The front porch which I wish we could have used more, but again too cold.
Lake Lure from Chimney Rock:
The top of the trail:
Chimney Rock from below:
Lake Lure, the stairs in Dirty Dancing – watermelon scene
Lake Lure, this is where the water scenes were recorded when they were practicing the big lift
Our house should be ready soon, just need a few finishing touches:
I will post more later this week. I have more videos and pictures, but here are a few of our trip to the pumpkin patch today. We didn’t really know what we were getting into! It was a small amusement park, but the boys are still a bit young for most of it. Playing with the hay seemed to be the biggest hit so maybe I need to got out and get a bale of hay to put on the deck. They also enjoyed walking (or crawling in Sam’s case) around the pumpkin patch and touching the pumpkins. They did not however like us trying to pose them for pictures!
Playing with the hay:
Hayride:
Pumpkin patch:
Not sure what is going on here, probably mad because he wants more animal crackers. We didn’t realize it was almost 12 at this point and boys had not had any lunch yet! Sam handled it much better than Graham.
